Has your thinking about transgender individuals changed?

Nick Cawthon, Oakland

Are you kidding? Ru Paul just raised $4 million in a single day for his Presidential run. You can’t get any more mainstream than that!

Mark Savery, San Francisco

Yes. As a gay man, I’m thinking about the old saying, “United we stand, divided we fall.” Recent actions in Congress have marginalized one group of people (transgender) to benefit another (gays and lesbians). Having endured discrimination myself, I find it distasteful to see the status of my sexual identity raised at the expense of another group.

Tom Martin, Oakland

When I first moved to the Bay area 10 years ago, I was aware of trans people and their issues. I was initially very angry at their reshaping of their own gender, then thought about it and could not understand why I was so mad at ‘them’. I dropped that attitude. They are people too, with their own struggles in addition to what most other people deal with on a daily basis.

Kristie Lauborough, Larkspur

I grew up in the south, in a place where I would never have dreamed that transgender people exist. As I’ve gotten older, I’ve had two of my ex-boyfriends come to realization that they were women emotionally and wanted to change their physical appearance to match. I respect and applaud them both for this.

Liz Raymer, Berkeley

My thinking about transgender individuals has always been open and accepting. My prejudices are against individuals who refuse to accept anything but the government’s way of doing things or what they think is written in the Bible. There’s where I draw the line.

Doris Howard, San Francisco

Not since 1972 when I co-founded a Gender Identity Unit within a Dept. of Psychiatry at a New York City hospital. I found them to be just like everyone else, with their own particular problems.

Stan Flouride, San Francisco

I know both men and women who are transgender and that exposure has helped me realize one very important fact: they are universally much happier after they complete their process. Life is tough enough without being dealt a hand that includes the wrong sex for one’s being.